A review by annie__bananie
Jam on the Vine by LaShonda Katrice Barnett

5.0

Barnett's novel checks so many boxes for me. After realizing that my bookshelves were dominated by white straight men telling white straight male stories, I knew I needed to expand my horizons--and "Jam on the Vine" expands them in so many directions. Following Ivoe in her journey as a queer black woman in turn-of-the-century America is an intimate, challenging, rewarding path. Each character is richly three-dimensional and I could have read an entire novel about any of them, but Ivoe shines the brightest as she nurtures her passion for reading into a passion for story- and truth-telling. Her development isn't a straight line, which makes me appreciate her all the more. The women who cross paths with Ivoe each leave their own mark on her that inspires me to think of their parallels in my own life; not only was reading this book a development of my literary horizons, but of my personal horizons as well.